1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tools used to prepare and serve various foods, especially suited to meats and fowls. More particularly, this invention relates to a novel apparatus which combines a knife and a turning hook in a single, easily used apparatus, and in one preferred embodiment does so in a novel arrangement resembling a legged creature such as an alligator. The invention may further embody a bottle de-capper and a hooked secondary cutting edge.
2. Related Art
Many different tools have been developed to handle foods, both in preparation and serving of same. Spoons and ladles are used for liquids or flowable foods such as soups and stews. Devices such as spatulas are used to turn over and lift meats, vegetables, fried eggs and the like. Forks are used to pierce and to manipulate various foods, particularly but not exclusively meats. Yet another device is a turning hook, which in a commonly seen configuration is a single pronged device with a sharply pointed end, formed into a curl and bent at an angle to the main shaft. Such turning hooks are especially convenient for turning and lifting meats and fowls, especially when grilling such foods, for example on an outdoor barbecue. An example of such turning hooks is shown in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 273,075 to Hayden, Mar. 20, 1984. Such turning hooks, in lieu of the use of a spatula or a conventional fork, permit a more secure and easier manner of impaling and lifting the meat, as the relatively tightly curled hook (substantially at a right angle to the main shaft) is rotated into the meat and then the tool (with the meat attached) can be picked straight up. Turning hooks generally permit the user to keep his or her hand away from a position substantially directly over the meat being picked up and turned, as conventional forks generally require.
Of course, knives of many sizes and shapes are used to cut foods, particularly but not exclusively meats such as beef or pork steaks and roasts, fowls such as chickens and turkeys, and fish. In addition to the common configuration of knives having elongated cutting edges, knives having relatively small, notched or curved cutting edges have been developed. Such knives often have the cutting edge formed by a sharp edged xe2x80x9chookxe2x80x9d protruding from the main blade body, and are used by hooking the blade into the foodstuff to be cut then pulling the blade toward the user.
Still another cooking or kitchen-related tool is a bottle de-capper for prying the caps off of bottles containing beverages, cooking marinades, wines and the like. Such bottle de-cappers, while taking a number of different forms, generally comprise a handled device having a prong, lip, or other protrusion which can be hooked under a bottle cap, then the handle manipulated (usually by rotating the handle upward or downward) to leverage the cap off of the bottle.
However, the related art known to applicant does not disclose a single tool with a knife having a primary cutting edge, in combination with a turning hook, and in alternative embodiments further combining a bottle de-capper and a curved or hook shaped secondary cutting edge. Further still, the known related art does not disclose a single tool combining a knife and a turning hook at the tip of the knife and forming the likeness of a legged animal, the legs of said animal likeness forming the bottle de-capper and the secondary cutting edge.
The present invention is a food preparation and serving tool comprising, in combination, a main blade body with a primary cutting edge, a handle at one end and a turning hook at the opposite end. In the preferred embodiment, the primary cutting edge is a generally arcuate, sharpened surface, the end of the main blade body opposite the handle has an extended and tapered tip, and the turning hook is formed by bending the extended tip around to a position more or less at right angle to the main blade body, and curling or turning up the end of the tip. The preferred embodiment further comprises at least two legs on the edge of the main blade body opposite the primary cutting edge. The main blade body, extended and tapered tip, and the legs together form, in the preferred embodiment, a likeness of a legged animal. The legs may comprise a bottle de-capper formed into one leg and a curved or hook-shaped secondary cutting edge formed into another leg. While likenesses of different animals may be formed, in one preferred embodiment an alligator likeness is formed.